One of my favorite things about summer is when it ends. I am not really an outdoors girl and I don’t do well with extremely hot weather. If it’s over 85, I’m probably going to be cranky. But now is the time of year when it starts cooling off in North Carolina, and it’s my favorite.

Funny thing is, when the weather is nicer, I’m a lot better about having spontaneous outings with the kids. When it’s hot, I’m more like, “Ugh, let’s just go home where it’s air-conditioned and I don’t have to sweat.” When it’s mild out, I’m all, “Hey, I know I just picked you up from daycare and it’s technically dinnertime, but LET’S GO TO THE PLAYGROUND!!”

(In a couple of months, I’ll go back to being the Lazy Mom again. “It’s too cold, we’re only going somewhere if it’s heated.” Yes, I am a big whiny crybaby, I know.)

Yesterday, after our normal weekend trip to IHOP, I suggested that we head up to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. The kids hadn’t been there in a long time — I wasn’t sure if Lucy would even remember it, it had been so long — and it seemed like the perfect day for it.

I forgot the stroller (it’s been living at my parents’ house for ages, since my dad takes Lucy for walks in it fairly often, whereas I almost never use it because hey little girl: YOU HAVE LEGS), but it worked out fine. The museum is big and spread out, but Lucy is a kid that needs to burn a lot of energy anyway. And when she needed a break, or when she just wanted to get up high to see the dinosaur exhibit, she managed to find a pretty sweet ride.

By the end of the day, I was tempted to ask Chris to piggyback me around, but I was afraid that with his whole Southern Gentleman thing, he’d probably try it and end up injuring himself. I do weigh just a tad more than Lucy, after all.

(About the Southern Gentleman thing: Chris is the type of guy who still insists on opening car doors for me, and it’s gotten to the point where I don’t even argue or tease him about it anymore, I just stand there and wait for him to do it.)

In case you wouldn’t have guessed it: yeah, the dinosaurs are pretty much Catie’s favorite thing about the museum. (Same as it was last year.)

The barnyard exhibit was probably Lucy’s favorite because they have real animals there (goats, pigs, a cow, etc). She was a little scared to get too close to them, but she pointed at each and told us what each animal says, and it was pretty cute.

Side note: Lucy was a little bit freaked by the butterfly house. Apparently butterflies are very pretty from a distance, not so much when they swoop down right in your face.

After we left at the museum, we stopped to get pizza for dinner, and then frozen yogurt for dessert.

At the fro-yo place, Lucy said, “Mama, I wear you sunglasses!” Oh, child.

My plan to wear them out actually worked pretty well. Lucy fell asleep on the couch immediately after her bath, and Catie didn’t last much longer. Chris and I were able to lay on the couch and watched Breaking Bad together without any interruptions.

It was a really good day.

Hopefully the nice weather will hold out for a while so we can have more of them.

It just happened that this past weekend, the weekend of Mother’s Day, was also the weekend that Dave left and went back to Seattle.

(Side note on that: Dave may actually be looking for an apartment here to be around more often, but I’m kind of afraid to say too much about that until everything is set in stone. But I think it would be a really good thing if it works out, both for the girls to have more time with their dad, and for me to get a break on a semi-regular basis.)

Catie always has a really hard time with it when Dave leaves, so we have a tradition of doing something really fun the next day. It’s just to help distract her and make the transition a little easier. So, on Saturday, my dad and I took the girls to Monkey Joe’s (a big indoor bounce house place). I didn’t take any pictures because I was too busy corralling Lucy. It’s funny to me how different they are: I couldn’t even get Catie to set foot in a bounce house until she was nearly 4 years old, and Lucy – at not even two – makes me climb the giant-ass ladder on the biggest slide in the entire place to slide down it with her. She’d probably go by herself if I let her, but I’m afraid of the bigger kids trampling her. (Thank GOD I had the foresight to wear leggings under my dress.)

I was thinking about my Mother’s Day post last year, and it’s funny to me how similar this year is to last.

My dad and I taking the kids on an outing where they had a blast, check.

Catie and my mom working in the garden together, check.

Leaving the girls with my parents for a while so I could spend some time with Chris. Who I now call by name instead of “my friend” or The Guy. He calls me his girlfriend. I kind of love it.

And he remembered from last year that tulips are my favorite.

The girls – or I guess I should say, technically my mom – also gave me tulips. I mixed them together, and I think it’s a pretty gorgeous arrangement on my kitchen counter right now.

No going out to eat this year because of my diet, so we grilled veggies and meats and had a delicious picnic on my parents’ deck instead.

And of course, topped it off by dancing around the house with my girls after their baths. No Adele this year, it’s all the Xanadu soundtrack.

One major difference between this year and last year? On Sunday morning, Catie came into my room and said, “Mommy, I’ll take Lucy downstairs and play with her.”

Catie turned on cartoons and they played nicely and quietly together for over two hours. I didn’t drag my lazy butt out of bed until after 10:30 a.m. That right there is basically Single Mom Heaven.

Plus, you know, there’s the whole point of the day. How thankful I am for my own mom (who is amazing and does things like buy flowers so the kids can pretend they’re giving them to me), and also for these two girls who both call me Mommy.

They’re pretty awesome, I gotta say.